Scrabble Workshop and Mini Scrabble Competition for Jit Sin High School students.

Venue : Jit Sin High School

Time 8.30am to 12.30 pm

Co ordinators: Shalyn Lim and Lee Yee Fun

11th July 2009

Srabble Party for PSC Members

The Penang Scrabble Club is pleased to announce the long awaited Scrabble Party on the 11th July 2009 at the poolside Marina Bay. A friendly mini competition will start at 3.00pm and continue till 12 midnight with breaks for Barbeque Dinner and Fruit ( Durian and Rambutan) desserts. Members interested to join in the fun please contact by 5th July 2009:

Island College of Technology (ICT) and Penang Scrabble Club (PSC) organised a Scrabble workshop for thirty teachers at the Penang Library, Scotland Road on 16th July.

The workshop was held at the request of teachers from some of the schools participating in the coming one day scrabble tournament (the 2nd Piala Pusingan Yang Berhormat Dato’ Seri Dr. Hilmi Yahaya scrabble tournament) to be held at the college on 7th August, 2008.

The four hour workshop kicked off after a hearty lunch sponsored by PSC with an introduction to the history of scrabble by John Lam. He then deftly guided them through the rudiments of the game. Many of the teachers had never played the game before and it took some time to help them understand how to count points after the tiles had put down on the board. Nevertheless, they were quick to grasp what was said and were soon eagerly trying out their language and mathematical skills with their own boards.

The session on quirky words found in scrabble such as vowel heavy words, consonant heavy words, words originating from abbreviations, acronyms and words that look like proper nouns brought gasps of disbelief and looks of wonderment and bewilderment from the teachers. Then it was on to rules and regulations of play, a guide to where new players can get access to resources and finally a hands on session with every participant playing a game.

Tea courtesy of ICT brought an end to the proceedings. Many participants found this workshop to be an eye opener and had never imagined that scrabble could be more than just a quiet board game for lazy evenings. They were eager to find more about the ‘brave new world’ of competitive scrabble. It is hoped that through workshops like these, more teachers and naturally, the students they work with will join the scrabble fraternity.

Pictures taken during the workshop:

4 August 2007

USM Scrabble Workshop

Report Prepared by Aaron Chong

Making a Scrabble workshop happen in USM was never an easy task: it was exhausting going through the red tape, and demoralizing when there was a small turnout.

Nevertheless, organizing USM's first Scrabble Workshop (probably since Vannitha Balasingam's time before the Scrabble club was dissolved) was an enriching experience. I wish to convey my sincerest thanks to Sarah and the English Language Society (ELS) who were interested in partaking this project and made it a part of ELS's activities, and most significantly making the USM Scrabble Workshop a reality.

It was a win-win situation between ELS and Scrabble: ELS managed to get an activity carried out and gather a few new members, and as a result of the workshop, the attendees were enlightened by the way Scrabble was played differently in a competitive level and the broadness of the Scrabble vocabulary. The ELS members were especially delighted by a game of Grabble played in between the presentation as a warm up before the heavy duty stuff in the next slides. After the workshop, there were plans to organize a Grabble competition.

I hope there will be more Scrabble events in USM this year, as I have met some students who were enthusiastic but unable to participate in the workshop due to another mandatory activity on the same day. A Grabble competition would definitely be a wonderful idea in my opinion, as it possesses less logistical requirements and can be participated by teams.